Labelling it "pure deception" and a "sham", the head of a statewide think tank called this week on the Jefferson Parish public school system to eliminate its practice of attributing some students' standardized test scores to schools they don't attend.

Barry Erwin, president of the Council for a Better Louisiana, said the practice creates a false and inaccurate impression that some schools are performing better than they are. He said the East Baton Rouge and Iberville school systems are also rerouting scores.

"School accountability is designed to show how a school is performing, and if those students are not in those schools, it doesn't show you that," Erwin said.

In some cases, he said, rerouting of test scores can boost the School Performance Scores of schools that are in danger of being taken over by the state. School Performance Scores are annual ratings that incorporate such factors as attendance and drop-out rates, and under accountability, are used to award schools that make certain numerical targets and sanction those that fall short.

The Council for a Better Louisiana is a private, non-profit research organzation based in Baton Rouge.

Jefferson school officials began rerouting scores last year at the urging of School Board member Judy Colgan, who feared the system's fledgling advanced studies schools were draining neighborhood schools of their brightest students and consequently lowering those schools' test scores.

In Jefferson, rerouting has shown little difference in the overall performance of conventional schools. Some schools, such as Granville T. Woods Elementary in Kenner, made notable gains in English and mathematics when they included magnet student scores, but most schools saw little net change. Paul J. Solis Elementary near Gretna, for example, gained just 1 percentage point in English and 1 in mathematics.

Some conventional schools saw their numbers actually slide. Rudolph Matas Elementary in Metairie, for example, one of the system's highest-ranking conventional schools, dropped two points in English and three points in math when it included magnet scores.

Greenlawn Terrace Elementary in Kenner was the top conventional school in both English and math, regardless of where magnet students' scores are reflected.

The Jefferson changes have been slight, in part because such a small percentage of students attend advanced studies school and also because officials are returning the scores of students from remedial magnet schools as well as magnets for high-achieving students.

Colgan defended rerouting Friday and said she will continue to support it.

"I'm not saying magnets shouldn't have their own set of scores," she said. "They do have their own scores, and they are always at the top of the list. But we felt that because the neighborhood schools were losing those higher achievers to the magnet schools, it was only fair that their scores go back to the home-based scores."

She said rerouted scores have been used only for the Jefferson school system and are not the same numbers that the Louisiana Department of Education releases every May. Jefferson school system spokesman Jeff Nowakowski said the system is doing nothing wrong.

"The Jefferson Parish public school system's recording of test scores conforms to all state education department policies and regulations," he said in a statement.

Colgan, however, said she would like to see the state release two sets of scores: those that include magnet schools and those that don't. She said she and other board members plan to meet with members of Jefferson Parish's legislative delegation to discuss the issue in more detail.

"The public has a right to know exactly how a school is performing, and school districts shouldn't be allowed to use tricks to bypass the true accountability that is at the heart of our law," he said.

State Superintendent of Education Paul Pastorek could not be reached for comment Friday. But earlier this week he told the Baton Rouge Business Report that the rerouting of scores is a form of "cooking the books."

"I think it's kind of sad that a group of people who are responsible for educating children resort to cooking the books to try to get themselves out of fulfilling their responsibility," the publication quoted him as saying. "I'm frankly disappointed."
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Barri Bronston can be reached at bbronston@timespicayune.com or 504.883.7058.